The Van Dyk/Groenewold family visiting IHL

BAD LIEBENZELL. It does not happen very often that a professor flies approximately 1,500 km in order to meet former students. However, that’s what Dr. Tricia Van Dyk, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at LCC International University, did. She, her husband, Benjamin Groenewold, also Assistant Professor of Philosophy at LCC International University, and their two children visited IHL for three days in early March, 2017.

Just in fall semester, 2016, Tricia Van Dyk had five IHL students in her class “Peacemaking and Justice.” Dr. Van Dyk said about them: “These students were excellent and an encouragement to others, including myself, so that I wanted to see where they had come from.” Tricia Van Dyk described these students as “sharp without being overly argumentative.”

Prof. Dr. Harald Jung, dean of university and research co-operation, was very happy to hearing that. He accompanied the family on a campus tour and a professors’ coffee time, and was delighted about this visit: “I genuinely appreciate the Van Dyks’ visit because it demonstrates that our institutions live by our memorandum of understanding. There has always been great student mobility, and during the last two years, we have also managed to connect on the faculty level especially.”

In this regard, Tricia Van Dyk and Benjamin Groenewold got to visit two IHL classes, “Evangelism” and “Contextual Theology,” where they took new ideas from for their own classes, and connected with more IHL professors.

It was also a special treat to have Tricia Van Dyk introduce LCC International University to IHL students. So far, 16 IHL students have studied in Klaipeda, Lithuania, for one semester. Four of these students were recipients of the scholarship Baden-Württemberg-STIPENDIUM from the Baden-Württemberg-Stiftung.

Three of these students, Julia, Felix and Myriam, invited the Van Dyk/Groenewold family over to their apartment on the family’s last evening in Bad Liebenzell in order to make Tarte Flambee with them. It is these kinds of friendships which make a university partnership become vivid and flourishing. Felix Unger, IHL student of Evangelical theology, said: “I can definitely recommend a semester at LCC because it simply is an experience that I would not have wanted to miss. It truly was studying with a worldwide horizon.”

IHL and LCC International University have had a memorandum of understanding since February 27, 2013.